Judge Timothy Evans puts brakes on gun-court plan

Cook County Chief Judge Timothy Evans has put the brakes on a new gun court, saying he was blindsided when he learned Cook County President Toni Preckwinkle was planning one. On Wednesday, Preckwinkle announced in a news conference that the opening date for a gun …Read More

• ‘You don’t need a last name for Herbie. Everybody knew Herbie’

  Flanked by his firefighter comrades, Capt. Herbie Johnson’s devastated family wept in a huddle Saturday morning outside the office of the Cook County medical examiner. An American flag hoisted over the street outside the morgue honored the first Chicago firefighter to die in the line of duty since 2010. Johnson’s grief-stricken wife, Sue, wept with their three children and dozens of other relatives and friends as family spokesman Dan McMahon spoke for them all: “He was always a hero to us and now he’s a hero for our city,” McMahon said.

• Naperville babysitter wants a new judge for murder trial

  Naperville double-murder suspect Elzbieta Plackowska asked Friday that a new DuPage County judge be assigned to her case, but she specifically avoided the judge who presided over the high-profile Marilyn Lemak murder trial.

• ‘I’m not paranoid,’ says Cook County judge who claims secret cases name her

  Cook County Judge Susan McDunn thinks someone might be out to get her — but she can’t say who. During two bizarre appearances in federal court last week, the 57-year-old judge claimed her “life is being ruined” by a series of secret lawsuits that may …Read More